The first Russian gas carrier has completed the first delivery of sanctioned LNG

The first gas carrier built in Russia has completed the delivery of a batch of LNG from Arctic LNG —2 on the Gydan Peninsula to a floating storage facility near Murmansk. Prior to that, the vessel made the transition along the Northern Sea Route to reach the sanctions project from the Zvezda Far Eastern shipyard, where it was commissioned.

The Sovcomflot gas carrier Alexey Kosygin, built in Russia and commissioned on December 22, 2025, successfully completed the first flight on the Bolshoy Kamen route (Primorsky Krai) — Gulf of Ob (Kara Sea) — Ura Bay (Barents Sea) — Murmansk has started work within the framework of the Arctic LNG 2 project: on January 28, a gas carrier carried out the first loading of Arctic LNG 2 liquefied natural gas in the Gulf of Ob, on February 3, LNG was unloaded onto a floating gas storage facility in Ur Bay," Sovcomflot reports.

They noted that the new gas carrier is better in its characteristics than LNG tankers serving Yamal LNG.

"During the passage along the Northern Sea Route, preliminary tests on independent movement in the ice were carried out on the ship. "Alexey Kosygin" confirmed the high ice characteristics laid down at the design stage, demonstrating the best performance of ice permeability compared to the previous generation of gas carriers of the ice class Arc7 series "Christophe de Margerie," the Russian shipowner said.

As EADaily reported, Alexey Kosygin's launch on the route will accelerate the operation of the scheme for the delivery of sanctioned LNG to China outside the navigation season along the Northern Sea Route. The bottom line is that ice-class gas carriers deliver shipments to Murmansk, from where they are already picked up by traditional LNG tankers and go around Europe.

Previously, only "Christophe de" worked on the route of ice-class gas carriers. Margery." This is the only vessel of the Russian company previously serviced Yamal LNG, but due to the imposition of sanctions, it switched to servicing Arctic LNG-2.